Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters

Take your next trip with Atlas Obscura!

Our small-group adventures are inspired by our Atlas of the world's most fascinating places, the stories behind them, and the people who bring them to life.

Visit Adventures
Trips Highlight
A view of Brașov’s Old Town.
Romania • 12 days, 11 nights
Legends of Romania: Castles, Ruins & Culinary Delights
from
Balkans road trip
Bosnia and Herzegovina • 9 days, 8 nights
Balkans Road Trip: Serbia, Croatia & Bosnia and Herzegovina
from
View all trips
Top Destinations
Latest Places
Most Popular Places Random Place Lists Itineraries
Add a Place
Download the App
Top Destinations
View All Destinations »

Countries

  • Australia
  • Canada
  • China
  • France
  • Germany
  • India
  • Italy
  • Japan

Cities

  • Amsterdam
  • Barcelona
  • Beijing
  • Berlin
  • Boston
  • Budapest
  • Chicago
  • London
  • Los Angeles
  • Mexico City
  • Montreal
  • Moscow
  • New Orleans
  • New York City
  • Paris
  • Philadelphia
  • Rome
  • San Francisco
  • Seattle
  • Stockholm
  • Tokyo
  • Toronto
  • Vienna
  • Washington, D.C.
Latest Places
View All Places »
The ‘Old Secretariat’ government building in New Delhi.
The 'Old Secretariat'
This set is inspired by a Roman arena.
Bozdağ Film Platolari
The Sea Water Distilling Plant.
Sea Water Distilling Plant
Contemplative paths.
Ayo Rock Formations
Latest Places to Eat & Drink
View All Places to Eat »
The pavlova comes crowned with jewel-like fruit.
Central Park Boathouse
The Village Tavern of Long Grove - exterior.
The Village Tavern
Hunter House Hamburgers
L’Escamoteur
Names on the bartop.
The Dive
Recent Stories
All Stories Video Podcast
Most Recent Stories
View All Stories »
Wortley built the wooden backpack she used while retracing Alexandra David-Néel’s journey from a chair she found on the street in London.
How Elise Wortley Climbed Mont Blanc in 1830s Women’s Attire
29 days ago
Simplicity is key: Just a slice of bread with a sprinkling of salt and pepper is the perfect accompaniment.
The Sweet Second Life of Creole Cream Cheese
29 days ago
My rendition of frog legs, popping mushroom curry, pad prik khing with salted egg yolk, and sweet khanom thuai.
Recreating My Favorite Meal From Thailand
29 days ago
Inside London’s Gorgeously Curated ‘Art Restaurants’
29 days ago

No search results found for
“”

Make sure words are spelled correctly.

Try searching for a travel destination.

Places near me Random place

Popular Destinations

  • Paris
  • London
  • New York
  • Berlin
  • Rome
  • Los Angeles
Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters
Sign In Join
Places near me Random place
All Canada Ontario Sudbury Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

A neutrino detector built into the largest man-made underground cavity in the world.

Sudbury, Ontario

Added By
Dylan Thuras
Email
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list

About

More than a mile underground in an Ontario mine is the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. The detector is located in the largest man made underground cavity in the world: a barrel 108 feet deep and 72 feet across forming a chamber roughly the size of a 10 story building. The entire chamber is filled with water, and its sole purpose is to detect solar neutrinos.

The walls of the chamber are lined with plastic to help to keep down the radiation levels from uranium and thorium in the surrounding rock. Inside the chamber is an enormous Buckminster Fuller sphere studded  with 9600 photomultiplier tubes, which itself surrounds a forty-foot acrylic sphere filled with 1,000 tons of heavy water. (The $330 million dollars worth of heavy water is on loan from Atomic Energy of Canada Limited.) SNO, as it's known, is situated in the deepest part of the nickel mine, helping to shield the detector from cosmic rays.

Despite the fact that billions of neutrinos stream through one's body every second, they can only be detected when they strike an atom's nucleus, giving off light. They are notoriously difficult to detect. Roughly 8 to 10 neutrino strikes are detected each day, and a single stray photon can cause a false event.

Having finished the recording element of the experiment, the heavy water has been drained out as the detector is being upgraded for the SNO+ experiment. The acrylic sphere will be filled with an organic liquid much like mineral oil, which can detect neutrinos of a much lower energy than the SNO could.

While the observatory itself is not currently open to the public for tours, in nearby Greater Sudbury the museum Science North shows "Secrets from the Sun," a video tour of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory.

Related Tags

Observatories Neutrino Detectors Strange Science Instruments Of Science Subterranean Sites Spheres Physics Buckminster Fuller

Community Contributors

Added By

Dylan

Edited By

MarkEGentili

  • MarkEGentili

Published

July 11, 2013

Edit this listing

Make an Edit
Add Photos
Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
Creighton Mine
Sudbury, Ontario, P3Y 1N2
Canada
46.463889, -81.174722
Visit Website
Get Directions

Nearby Places

Big Nickel

Sudbury, Ontario

miles away

Alex Trebek Mural

Sudbury, Ontario

miles away

Burwash Correctional Center

Killarney, Ontario

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Sudbury

Sudbury

Ontario

Places 3

Nearby Places

Big Nickel

Sudbury, Ontario

miles away

Alex Trebek Mural

Sudbury, Ontario

miles away

Burwash Correctional Center

Killarney, Ontario

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Sudbury

Sudbury

Ontario

Places 3

Related Stories and Lists

Bucky's World: Explore a Better Designed Future with Buckminster Fuller

buckminster fuller

By Allison Meier

Related Places

  • Meyrin, Switzerland

    CERN

    Home of the Large Hadron Collider and the birthplace of the World Wide Web.

  • IceCube Research Station

    Antarctica

    IceCube Research Station

    The world's largest neutrino telescope searches for secrets of the universe at the South Pole.

  • Tesla Coil

    Los Angeles, California

    Griffith Observatory's Tesla Coil

    High on a hill overlooking Los Angeles lives a world famous, high power conical Tesla Coil.

  • Ercolano, Italy

    Osservatorio Vesuviano (Vesuvius Observatory)

    The oldest volcanology research center in the world.

  • MINOS neutrino detector

    Tower, Minnesota

    Soudan Underground Mine State Park

    Minnesota's oldest and deepest mine is now an underground physics laboratory.

  • Ulugh Beg Observatory.

    Samarkand, Uzbekistan

    Ulugh Beg Observatory

    Light still pours into the ruins of this ancient Islamic observatory.

  • Sers, France

    Pic du Midi Observatory

    This futuristic observatory at the top of the Pyrénées offers unrivaled views.

  • Entering the Mormon Archives, Stewart Brand Center, photo by Alexander Rose.

    Sandy, Utah

    Mormon Genealogical Archives

    Step into the cool deep past and unknown future of who begat who.

Aerial image of Vietnam, displaying the picturesque rice terraces, characterized by their layered, verdant fields.
Atlas Obscura Membership

Become an Atlas Obscura Member


Join our community of curious explorers.

Become a Member

Get Our Email Newsletter

Follow Us

Facebook YouTube TikTok Instagram Pinterest RSS Feed

Get the app

Download the App
Download on the Apple App Store Get it on Google Play
  • All Places
  • Latest Places
  • Most Popular
  • Places to Eat
  • Random
  • Nearby
  • Add a Place
  • Stories
  • Food & Drink
  • Itineraries
  • Lists
  • Video
  • Podcast
  • Newsletters
  • All Trips
  • Family Trip
  • Food & Drink
  • History & Culture
  • Wildlife & Nature
  • FAQ
  • Membership
  • Feedback & Ideas
  • Community Guidelines
  • Product Blog
  • Unique Gifts
  • Work With Us
  • About
  • FAQ
  • Advertise With Us
  • Advertising Guidelines
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms of Use
Atlas Obscura

© 2025 Atlas Obscura. All Rights Reserved.